Peter nails it here! IT Nation Connect is all about community, growth, and learning from those who’ve been there. That’s exactly what IT Nation Evolve Peer Groups are built on - real conversations with peers who understand your challenges, share what’s working, and help you grow both your business and your life. If you’re attending Connect this year, come chat with us at our booth in the Solution Pavilion or join us for the IT Nation Peer Group Breakfast 🍳🥓 on Thursday, Nov. 6 or Friday, Nov. 7 (7:30–8:30 a.m., Room Suwannee 17) to experience what this community is all about. Grab some coffee, connect with members, and hear their stories firsthand. ☕️ Learn More: https://lnkd.in/eMqpncGg #Evolve #ITNation #MSP #ManagedServices
One of most frequent discussions I've heard this past quarter from partners, especially when we go into The IT Nation Evolve peer group rooms, is around managed services growth being very challenging. Service Leadership Inc., a ConnectWise company data shows that Most Recent 4 Quarters (MR4Q) organic managed services revenue growth (based on running a sample with PE backed MSPs excluded, due to acquisitions distorting organic growth data) is running at 10.4% While this is not the growth of the COVID years, it's within the historical 10-14% range. And, it doesn't come with the extreme inflation from those COVID years, so it is a "healthier" 10.4% Where it gets interesting is the next chart showing what % of MSPs are growing greater than 10.4%. The good news is 32.6% of partners are growing at over 15%, with 18% of them growing over 20%. The bad news is 54.5% of partners are growing under 10%, with 22.4%, the largest group in the chart, growing 0% or less! Managed service revenue growth for MSPs is definitely going through a "haves and have nots" cycle. So, which are you? If you are in the >15% camp, keep doing what you are doing, foot on the gas! If you are in the other camp and not growing enough, you need to fix it, now! This is a pressing concern for these MSPs, they have to fixed their growth model. At IT Nation Connect Global, November 3-5, we'll have substantial breakout content on sales and marketing best practices. And at our Evolve peer groups, this will continue to be a major focus in 2026. And, Service Leadership will be doing more follow ups on this subject. One KPI to check, what is your MSP spending on sales & marketing? Top 1/4 MSPs are averaging 14.2% of gross margin dollars on sales and marketing, make sure you are investing enough in your growth, don't leave it to chance! Edit - I was asked about the impact of churn, do we factor that in? Yes, this is net MS revenue growth, including new revenue (new customers, price increases, and customers adding additional employees on per user agreements) minus lost revenue (primarily loss of customers but customers cutting employees will also impact this a bit). MS revenue churn rates range from 5% for top 1/4 MSPs to 10% for bottom 1/4 MSPs (measured by customer losses, btw, it ranges from about 2.5% to about 5%, our data says the customers lost are disproportionately larger customers, on average). If you are increasing prices 4-5%, that helps offset this and your sales model should be built to bring in enough new business to maintain healthy growth. But, if you have a churn problem, you need to fix the underlying causes of it AND focus on growing your business. If you just focus on growth and ignore the systemic issues causing customers to leave, you will struggle. #itn25 ConnectWise Robert Bufano Brad Schow Andre Gilmore Arlin Sorensen Aaron Boone, MBA, PMP Scott Scrogin Nick Moran Dan Scott Stu Applegate Matt Topper, CISSP, CISM, CCSP Mark Miller Kevin Wolthuis Jenna Stramaglio